Woodstock for Christmas's Ornament, Or, The Perfect Fix for Wonky Beads

With the background, bird and guitar finished, it is time to wrap up the Woodstock Christmas Logo ornament by stitching the little Christmas ornament that dangles from the guitar.

I've always intended to bead it.  So I grabbed a bunch of size 11 and size 14 beads in red, gold and black and started playing around.  The size 11 (sometimes written 11/0) beads turned out to be too large.  I wanted beads jammed close together so size 11 is just too big.  Luckily I had the smaller sizes in all three colors.  So I started and came up with this.

Drunken Christmas Ornament

Ugh.  Not the look I wanted!  So I ripped the beads out and tried again, but this time I put red felt padding on first.  Here is the red padding in position, tacked down with my beading thread.

Felt Padding

Felt is a good choice for solidly beaded areas as it helps hold the beads in position.  Then I added my peace sign, then started putting on beads in horizontal rows.  I ended up with this.

Still Pretty Wonky!

Still not great.  Better but not the right look.  Sigh.  Luckily beads are easy to remove.  Clip the beading thread (preferably over a tray in your lap) and off they come.

Beads Over Padding in Vertical Rows

This time I added the gold peace sign first, then started adding the beads in vertical rows.  Once I finished a row, I went back through it a second time to straight it up.

Done!

The moral of the story is beads are wiggly things, and sometimes you have to try a lot of ways to attach them to get the look you want. Felt is a very good choice in some situations.  You can also pad with cotton makeup pads that can be cut to size.

The only thing left is to check the ornament for missed stitches and then start the process for making it up into a hanging ornament.  Stay tuned.

I am adding each week's progress report to a tab on the Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides blog. If you want to catch up on what you missed or just re-read everything, it's all there. Click on the Magic Carpet photo on the right side of this blog and you'll go straight there. Then all you have to do is click on the right tab at the top of the page under the header photo. Click on the Magic Carpet photo there to return to Blog's home page.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 26, 2019 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.